


Laurels

by fantasiavii



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: M/M, mentions of drinking, mentions of past alcohol abuse, this thing is really just fluff, too much glitter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-08-10 11:04:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7842400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fantasiavii/pseuds/fantasiavii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The air is full of drums and people yelling, smoke and champagne and flower petals.  It’s loud, it’s chaotic, it’s Renn Fayre.<br/>It’s Damen’s Renn Fayre.</p><p>Modern college AU set at the end of the year celebration at my college.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laurels

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Not Ready to Lose Today](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6852316) by [write_midshipman_write](https://archiveofourown.org/users/write_midshipman_write/pseuds/write_midshipman_write). 
  * Inspired by [Not Ready to Lose Today](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6852316) by [write_midshipman_write](https://archiveofourown.org/users/write_midshipman_write/pseuds/write_midshipman_write). 



> This fic is an AU set at the end of the year celebration my college throws called Renn Fayre. All seniors who have completed their senior theses get golden laurels to wear. This fic takes place at the start of Renn Fayre, which is Thesis Parade and includes the burning of thesis drafts. I have changed Laurent and Damen’s ages so they are both seniors. More notes and a glossary at the end of the fic.
> 
> It was partly inspired by my sister's fic set during Renn Fayre for the Les Mis fandom. You should definitely check that one out as well, it's longer and gives more of an idea of what our college is like. It's also a really cute Enjoltaire fic. She can be found on tumblr [here!](http://midshipmank.tumblr.com/)

The air is full of drums and people yelling, smoke and champagne and flower petals. It’s loud, it’s chaotic, it’s Renn Fayre. 

It’s Damen’s Renn Fayre.

Specifically, right now, it’s Damen’s Thesis Parade and he watches with glee like foam fizzing over the lip of a bottle as the bonfire in front of him consumes the sheaves of paper he throws in. The golden laurels on his head feel like a crown. 

The crowd around him writhes and dances. There are people kissing on every side of him. He has already kissed two people, Nikandros and a shyly blushing Erasmus.

Damen goes to throw the last of his thesis drafts into the flames when a hand on his wrist stops him. He looks up and sees Laurent, standing calm and still in the midst of the celebration like the eye of a hurricane.

“You came,” Damen says, wonder in his voice.

“I have to do something with this, don’t I?” Laurent replies, holding up his own stack of thesis drafts, but his eyes gleam as he looks at Damen. 

Damen grins. “Go on then.”

Laurent glances from Damen to the fire. Then, with careful movements, he tosses half the stack in. Laurent can’t quite contain the smile that fights its way onto his face. Damen feels like the sun is rising in his chest.

Laurent has never been one for Thesis Parade. He’s shown up in previous years, but usually hung around the edges, avoiding being sprayed by champagne. Now he’s here, dressed no different than a normal day except for the golden laurels resting atop his head, his nice shirt slowly being soaked by passing champagne spray and—

Laurent doesn’t even try to avoid the glitter when it hits him. Damen moves, too late, and the glitter gets them both, but mostly Laurent, whose shoulder and half his chest are covered. 

And Laurent just laughs. It’s a beautiful sound.

Damen tries, ineffectually, to brush some of it off, saying, “You’ll never get it all off.”

Laurent looks up at Damen from beneath his lashes as he says, coyly, “You can help me.”

There’s glitter on Laurent’s neck, going beneath the collar of his shirt. Damen swallows. “You have stars,” he says. Against the dark blue of Laurent’s shirt, the glitter looks like the night sky. 

And Laurent laughs again. “How drunk are you?”

“Not very,” Damen says honestly. He hadn’t wanted to get very drunk this year. He wants to remember everything. Most importantly, he doesn’t want to repeat sophomore year. (Even though Laurent had been surprisingly understanding for one who was strictly sub-free. He’d dragged Damen to the Whitebird tent, despite looking so severe that Damen had half expected Laurent to kill him instead of help him, and when Damen was lucid enough to ask why, Laurent had said, “I love you, idiot,” and Damen thought all the vomiting and the headaches in the world were worth it for that.)

Laurent is still holding the last of his thesis drafts. He uses the hand holding them to gesture to Damen’s remaining papers. “Together?”

Damen smiles helplessly. “Together.”

They had turned in their theses together too. Laurent had finished his about a week ahead of Damen’s, but he didn’t say anything until Damen had finished his, just so they could turn them in together. They had majored in different departments—Laurent in Comparative Literature with a focus on political science and French and Damen in Linguistics with a focus on classical languages—but they had both been there with the other when they handed in their finished theses and were crowned with golden laurels.

Damen reaches out. Laurent takes his hand without hesitation. They toss the rest of their thesis drafts into the bonfire.

Damen tugs on Laurent’s hand, pulls him closer. “Can I kiss you?”

Laurent rolls his eyes. “You hardly need to ask.”

“I’m practicing good consent,” Damen says, referring to the banner that hangs over their heads.

“Well then,” Laurent smirks, “yes.”

They kiss, a moment of stillness as Renn Fayre explodes around them. Damen feels euphoric. 

They break apart just as a voice cries, “Laurent _kissing someone?_ At _Renn Fayre?_ Surely I am hallucinating!”

“It’s only Damen,” says another voice.

“Shut up, I’m allowed to be happy that my little brother has finally completed this time-honored tradition after _four years,_ even if it is just his boyfriend he’s kissing.”

“Hello, Auguste,” Laurent says with dry amusement.

Damen looks over Laurent’s shoulder to see Auguste has fought his way through the crowd to get to them, with Jord trailing after him. 

“Hey,” Damen says. “Laurent got you a pass again?”

“Yep,” Auguste says, holding up his wrist to show off the band. “And you know you’re supposed to stay with your guests, Laurent, not go running off into a crowd the first moment you get.”

“I left you with Jord,” Laurent says. 

Auguste shakes his head with a show of exasperation but,“Enjoying your Renn Fayre?” is all he says, changing the subject with careless exuberance. He was always more enthusiastic about parties than Laurent. His own Renn Fayre (Damen’s sophomore year) had been wild.

“I _was_ ,” Laurent tells him meaningfully. 

Auguste ruffles his hair. Glitter falls out. “Fine. I’ll let you kiss. Make up for all the kisses you missed in the last three Renn Fayres.” Laurent glares at him and Auguste laughs. “Jord!” he calls. “Let’s see if we can go find some bagels.” 

They leave, disappearing as quickly as they appeared.

Damen raises his eyebrows at Laurent. “You wanted something?”

“If you consent,” Laurent says, a smile curling his lips.

“Yes.”

They kiss again, deeper this time, Laurent’s arms coming up to loop around Damen’s neck. Damen tries to burn this moment into his memory so he can treasure it forever.

“Get a room!” says another familiar voice.

Laurent breaks away with a huff of laughter but doesn’t move from Damen’s arms. Nicaise is beside them now. He’s grinning, the little shit. As they watch, he places a single sheet of paper into the flames.

“You’re not even a senior yet,” Damen points out.

“It was on the ground,” Nicaise replies, eyes widening innocently. He takes a long drink from this year’s Renn Fayre water bottle. 

Damen watches him, unimpressed. “That’s definitely not water.”

Nicaise’s eyes flash with mischief. “Neither is yours.” And he darts away again.

Against his chest, Laurent is giggling. _Giggling._ Damen looks down with wonder, a smile spreading across his face. “What?”

“Nothing,” Laurent says, still giggling. “They’re just never going to leave us alone if we stay here.”

“Do you want to leave?”

“No.” Laurent shook his head. “No, let them come. Kiss me again.”

And Damen does. Again and again and again.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Here’s a little more explanation about Renn Fayre.
> 
>  **Renn Fayre** is a three day celebration that starts on the Friday of the last day of class and goes until Sunday. There’s music and dancing and many other events. Each year has a theme and people dress up in wild costumes, which is why it’s notable that Laurent is dressed normally.
> 
>  **Thesis Parade** is the start of Renn Fayre when the seniors burn their thesis drafts in a bonfire. There’s a group of students who play drums and people go around spraying people with champagne. And glitter. There’s also lots of platonic kissing. The bonfire is in front of the library and the seniors parade through the library on a red carpet.
> 
>  **Sub-free** means someone who doesn’t drink or use drugs (don’t use substances). It can also be used to describe an event or place where you can’t bring substances. (Ex: there are two floors of sub-free housing at my college, but you don’t need to live there to be sub-free.) 
> 
> **Whitebird** refers to the organization that is brought in just for the weekend that functions as emergency medical care. 
> 
> **Laurent’s major** (Comparative Lit with a focus in poli sci and French) is based off my sister’s, though she speaks Spanish. In this world, Laurent didn’t have to lose his bookishness but he can still be interested in politics and I thought it was a good compromise.
> 
>  **Damen’s major** (Linguistics with a focus in classical languages) is based off the fact that he speaks a lot of languages in the books? Idk. Classical languages in this case refer to Greek and Latin, though I headcanon that he speaks French and Spanish as well.
> 
>  **“I’m practicing good consent”** is a reference to a banner that hangs over the library entrance (and the bonfire) that says “Are you practicing good consent?” because consent is important!!! Even if you are already dating the person!!!
> 
>  **“Laurent got you a pass again”** Auguste went to the same school, but he’s two years older than Damen and Laurent and so has graduated already. Everybody who can attend Renn Fayre in the student body (some students are excluded for bad behavior) receives a wristband that they have to wear for all three days. If you want to bring a guest, even one of the alumni, you have to buy a wristband for them and keep them with you at all times and make sure they don’t break the community rules. 
> 
> **“Let’s see if we can go find some bagels”** There are students who volunteer for a service called Karma Patrol and they walk around with bagels and water to give people. 
> 
> Everyone who gets a wristband gets a **Renn Fayre water bottle.** The wristband is put in the water bottle, along with other things like emergency numbers to call and glasses that make the world rainbow, and the water bottle is put in students’ mailstops. 
> 
> **Background that couldn’t fit in the fic:** Damen and Laurent have been together since the beginning of sophomore year. They met freshman year in their Hum conference (conference section for the required freshman class, Humanities 110). It took all of freshman year to fall in love and then admit to having fallen in love and then the year ended before either of them could work up the courage to ask the other one out but they spent the entire summer texting and chatting and skyping and the first thing Damen did when they got back was ask Laurent out. 
> 
>  
> 
> [I'm on tumblr!](http://fantasiavii.tumblr.com/)


End file.
